Striped Linnarp TV unit

Materials: Linnarp tv-unit, masking tape (white, blac and silver), scissors, ruler, carpet knife, 2 knobs

Description: Tape 8 stripes (3 white, 2 black and 3 silver) horizontally with masking tape to each sliding glass door. Measure distance of tapes with ruler. Cut each tape with scissors. Finish stripes with sharp carpet knife. Screw new knobs to glass doors.

See more of the striped Linnarp TV unit.

~ Miia, Tampere

How I created a headboard for under $25

Materials: 1 LINNARP glass door, 3 yards of durable fabric (approximate), 1 Old queen size sheet, 2 bags of Poly-fil batting, 3 buttons of your choice, 1 Staple Gun, 4 - 2 1/2/"; L brackets, Needle and Thread (for the buttons), Masking tape, Safety Glasses, Mallet/hammer

Description: After years of hating my bed but being too cheap to spend money on a new bed I decided I would create my own headboard to add some style to my boring bed. I ended up finding a set of 2 LINNARP glass doors at Ikea on clearance for $14 that sparked my imagination.

Now for the Hack:

1. First you will need to take the glass out of the LINNARP glass door. Please BE CAREFUL, put the masking tape on the glass panels ensuring that the panels are well covered.

2. Take your mallet and tap the glass so that it shatters. Note: you may want to put a drop cloth down on your floor. I ended up placing a large box underneath to catch any glass shards.

3. Once the glass is completely removed, be sure to clean any excess glass out of the frame. I used a flat-head screwdriver to get into the crevices of the frame.

4. Measure out 6 large squares of fabric based on the 3 windows of the frame: 3 for the front, 3 for the backing.

5. Measure the center of each front facing fabric and sew on your buttons for a "faux" tufted look.

6. Take your staple gun and staple the 3 front fabric panels to the frame ensuring to leave enough room in the fabric for the batting.

7. Staple 3 out of the 4 sides of the 3 back panels to the frame of each window, being sure to create a "pocket" for the batting to go in.

8. Stuff each panel with the batting to the, be sure to not over stuff, otherwise you will need larger "L" brackets to mount the headboard.

9. Finish stapling the last side of the back fabric to the frame to close off the pocket you left.

10. Mount the headboard above your bed using "L" brackets from the hardware store. And you are done!

Total spent: $24

LINNARP door - $7
Fabric - $6
Buttons - $3
Ploy-Fil Batting - $5
"L" Brackets from the hardware store - $3

A Step-by-Step video can be found here.

Happy Headboarding!

~ North Hollywood, CA

Usable computer desk for a small place

Materials: desk, wood boards, hobby hinges and magnetic latch from Home Depot

Description: After the birth of our daughter, our extra bedroom became a baby room. This meant that our computer had to move out into the living room of our small two bedroom apartment. With not much space in our apartment, we went to IKEA to see if we could find a small desk that could fit in the corner of our living area. We found the LINNARP desk to be the perfect size for the space, but we had to deal with a narrower table surface depth. Furthermore, the desk was just a tad too tall to type comfortably for long periods of time.

To remedy this situation, I got the idea from other projects here on IKEAHackers.net to create a keyboard tray out of the drawers portion of the desk that would not only increase the working surface of the desk, but also allow everything to be hidden out of sight when guests came over. After all, our computer was going to be in the middle of our living room.

The problem was that there was no existing middle drawer to modify into a keyboard tray, so I had to create a new drawer in the desk. Essentially, I reused the drawer rails and created one giant pull-out drawer out of the 3 drawer compartments in the desk. The sides of the pull-out tray were reused from the original drawers, and the bottom board was purchased from Home Depot. The new door on the front of the desk was then fashioned from another piece of wood, and affixed to the desk with two 2" hobby hinges. The door stays closed courtesy of a 97-cent magnetic latch. I reused the drawer pull from the desk in an attempt to make the new desk look similar to the original LINNARP when closed. The door was then painted satin black which doesn't perfectly match the original black, but it's close enough that you can't tell unless you really know what you're looking for.

I have a wireless keyboard and mouse which helps to keep things clean (no extra wires running in and out of the desk). With this new modification, I'm able to sit farther back from the 24" monitor as well as sit at a more comfortable height when typing.

~ Jimmy Su, Texas